In a year-end post reflecting on 2025, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri warned that artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping photography and visual media, making authenticity increasingly difficult to identify. Writing in a post composed entirely of text slides, Mosseri argued that AI has reached a point where real photos and AI-generated images are becoming nearly indistinguishable. As a result, he said, Instagram and its creators must rethink how images are evaluated and trusted as the platform looks toward 2026.
According to Mosseri, the rise of AI-generated imagery is pushing creators toward a new visual language. While many creators have responded by embracing more unpolished and unflattering images to signal authenticity, Mosseri warned that AI systems will quickly replicate that same “raw” aesthetic. When that happens, visual cues alone will no longer be reliable indicators of what is real. Instead, Mosseri suggested that audiences will eventually need to shift their focus from what is being shown to who is behind the content—a transition he said will take years and feel deeply uncomfortable, given humans’ instinctive trust in what they see.
On the technical front, Mosseri predicted that camera manufacturers will increasingly turn to cryptographic methods to establish authenticity at the point of capture. By digitally signing photos and creating a verifiable chain of ownership, camera makers could help prove that images were taken by real devices rather than generated by AI. At the same time, he criticized the industry’s push to make amateur photos look overly polished, arguing that camera makers are “competing to make everyone look like a pro photographer from 2015.” According to Mosseri, highly flattering imagery is now easy to produce and has lost its appeal, while content that feels imperfect and genuine is becoming more valuable.
Mosseri also addressed Instagram’s own challenges as an AI-powered platform under Meta. Like Facebook and WhatsApp, Instagram rolled out new AI features in 2025, but it has also faced criticism for the spread of AI-generated content and ads featuring AI versions of users. With powerful image and video generators flooding the internet, Mosseri said Instagram must adapt quickly by clearly labeling AI-generated content, improving ranking systems to reward originality, and surfacing “credibility signals” that help users decide which creators to trust. “Instagram is going to have to evolve in a number of ways,” he wrote, “and fast.”
